Monday, January 23, 2006

And well he should, with NBC losing seven figures of money per episode and many stations having to fall back on Public Service Announcements to fill the ad time, or sell ads at pennies on the dollar.

So the creator has started a new blog to save his show--and the Episcopal Diocese of Washington is his host! That speaks volumes about the Episcopal Church. Now the world may know why, for example, I left it a long time ago, and why I am not waiting for churches to find themselves walking out of their beautiful, stained-glass-windowed buildings and meet in rented auditoriums and storefronts. That any element of the Episcopal Church would have anything to do with this blasphemous show, shows you that they are thoroughly worldly.

But what can one expect of a church that consecrated an openly homosexual bishop? Or for years tolerated bishop after bishop, from Otis Pike to John Shelby Spong, who swings at the foundations of the faith with a pick-ax?

Thank you, no. I'll read the book by the other Daniel.

UPDATE: Someone named Jim Naughton, representing the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, specifically denies hosting any blog created by Jack Kenny. However, I quote the article in the Winston-Salem Journal:

Jack Kenny, the creative force behind the prime-time drama about an Episcopal priest and his dysfunctional family, posted his appeal on a blog, www.blogofdaniel.com, whose host is the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.

Also, I would like the Bishop of Washington, or his accredited representative, to be good enough to explain why a legend reading "From the Episcopal Diocese of Washington" appears on the header of that blog, and why the domain name "blogofdaniel.com" resolves to "blog.edow.org/weblog/", if the Diocese did not decide to host it. I respectfully suggest that if the Bishop of Washington has any quarrel with anyone, then it might--I say again, might--be with Jack Kenny for representing the EDOW as his hosts. However, the domain-name resolution leaves the Diocese of Washington with a great deal of explaining to do.

I will gladly correct any error I make. But when my research produces facts that are at variance with someone's complaint, then the complainer must explain the discrepancy, and I don't care who it is. I cannot--no journalist could--operate any other way.

My thanks to Kat, who spotted this message from Jack Kenny on the NBC homepage.

Unfortunately, due to many reasons, "The Book of Daniel" will no longer be aired on NBC on Friday nights. I just wanted to say "thank you" to all of you who supported the show. There were many wonderful, talented people who contributed to it's success - and I do mean success. Whatever the outcome, I feel that I accomplished what I set out to do: A solid family drama, with lots of humor, that honestly explored the lives of the Webster family. Good, flawed people, who loved each other no matter what... and there was always a lot of "what"! I remain proud of our product, proud of my association with Sony, NBC Universal, and NBC, who all took a chance on a project that spoke to them, and proud to have made an impact on so many of your lives.

Thanks for watching.

Sincerely,

Jack Kenny

Creator, The Book of Daniel

With regard to Jim Naughton's protest earlier today: if Jack Kenny did not create the blog, then who did? Did the Episcopal Diocese of Washington create it themselves? If the Bishop of Washington thinks that I think any more highly of him upon learning that the decision to create a blog on a frankly blasphemous television show came from him or any member of his episcopal staff, then I hereby inform him that he is sadly and dreadfully mistaken.

And about The Book of Daniel itself, I say: Good riddance to bad rubbish. I never watched it, and after the accounts I heard of that show, which not one person ever contradicted, I consider that I missed nothing that could possibly have built me up. That show did not build up; it tore down. I shudder to think of the "impact" that the show had on anyone's life. If I wanted to contemplate the depths to which the Episcopal Church has sunk, I needed no dramatic presentation beyond Tennessee Williams' play, The Night of the Iguana, later made into a motion picture of the same name starring Richard Burton, Deborah Kerr, Ava Gardner, Sue Lyon, and Grayson Hall. And at least Tennessee Williams did not dare suggest that Jesus Christ Himself would have approved of the debauched condition, and ultimate surrender to the mire, of "The Rev. T. Lawrence Shannon." And that character was a very paragon of virtue compared to "The Rev. Daniel Webster." Shannon at least had enough honor to recognize when he was no longer fit to be a minister of the Gospel. Daniel Webster, who violated every condition for the ministry laid down by Paul to Timothy (I Timothy 3), never admitted the same in his own case.